Have you taken advantage of the fact that Shroud of the Avatar has gone free-to-play yet? Or are you staring at that with some confusion because you didn’t realize the game was officially free-to-play before now? Either answer is right; while the last set of patch notes mentioned improvements to the “free player” experience, it’s only this week that press releases have been sent out confirming that Portalarium is now officially calling the game free-to-play.
The aforementioned patch focused on a more positive new player experience that clearly helps to smooth the experience of free players, along with removing restrictions on land ownership and story progression. It is a bit odd, however, that so little would be said about the “transition” to free-to-play until after it had happened and no one had noticed it (aside from some of our savvy commenters). The game’s Steam charts may illustrate some of the reason behind the shift, though (keeping in mind, of course, that Steam does not list all of the game’s players).
Time to get SPOOKY at the 👻R59 Halloween Dance Party🎃 in Clubsidius, located in the town Obsidious 3-6 PM TODAY (Central)! See you on the dance floor, Avatar! @RichardGarriott #LBSotA pic.twitter.com/Zw5j29Gw3I
— Shroud of the Avatar (@ShroudofAvatar) October 29, 2018
Pushing a game on Early Access is hard enough without making it a subscription based game to boot. I avoided it because of that.
Maybe I was mistaking it for another game, but I swore it had a subscription at the beginning.
If I liked it I would play it either as b2p or even as subscription. Nothing changes for me.
I didn’t hate it, but it probably was the most disappointing game I ever backed. Honestly, if you want to try an old-school feeling MMO that’s fun, I’d recommend Project Gorgon.
It’s true that this game is very wide open to whatever you want to do, but a game can be wide open and still offer direction. Shroud needs more direction to get you started. My suggestion, based on what I’ve seen other games do, is that the game should offer you a standard path that you can take if needed; one you can disregard if you know what you are doing, but one that you can follow for a while until you become familiar with the systems and options.
Im waiting for the Steam Sales when they start giving me money to play this
Awesome comment. Really :)
I should try it out again with the revamped newbie thingy, but boy I wasn’t impressed at launch when I played it.
So let me get this straight, as I have admittedly not being following this title…was this the game made by that developer who sent himself off into space as a tourist and sold his blood on EBay or something?
*Pigtails glances down at Mr. Schlag’s latest editorial gif contribution*
I think it is! Probably why I wasn’t following this game. Good to know it’s F2P now? o.O
Is the card combat mini-game gone? I know there was a gimped option to opt out, but that’s not what I’m asking.
The way you describe it Vic, it sounds awesome. But I have to agree with Maydrock, that was a major turn off for me as well. It will probably be one of those systems we look back at in one of Justin’s archaeology articles and refer to it as “ahead of its time.”
Gave it a shot but the fps performance was pretty bad, not as bad as Bless but still pretty poor.
Gameplay wise it feels like something that would have came out a decade ago. Whether that has a nostalgic or just a dated feel will certainly be a matter of opinion. Could definitely use some more polish though.
Same. Just played a bit. This game is way heavier than it should be.
I’ve given the game several tries and kept coming back because I kept hoping they would improve it. The dialog trees and ways you get quests were just too complicated. In the end it continues to just feel unfinished and unpolished.